The Write Stuff: Lucy Tiven on Courage and Keeping People Connected

The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Lucy Tiven is a first year MFA student at San Francisco State University. Most recently, her poems have appeared in the Scrambler, Metazen, and HTMLgiant. She has a book forthcoming from Plain Wrap and watches the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon every weeknight.

When people ask what do you do, you tell them...?

I usually say I'm a grad student. Which is true.

Sometimes I say poetry, but that can get you in trouble, like they'll try to talk to you about the Beats who I don't really like, or ask what your poems are "about" and you find yourself saying some totally pretentious vague thing and then this creeping self-loathing.

I write articles for the Fanzine too. People think that means like, "a fanzine", something you staple together yourself, but it's a legitimate website. It's very good.